Cinnamon-Swirl Chocolate Chip Bread.

It was supposed to be heavily drizzled with a vanilla glaze, BUT… was too incredible as is! Drenching it in a glaze would take away from all of it’s cinnamon, brown-sugary, chocolate chippy flavor.

I found myself sneaking a small piece after breakfast, after my workout, and heck – I even replaced my nightly popcorn bowl in the name of swirled quickbread. If I hadn’t promised Kevin’s motorcycle friends (yes, I’ve been on it. yes, it’s frightening!) a few slices, then we’d probably polish off every last sugary crumb in only 2 days.

I craved the same comforting flavors last week and before I knew it, this quick bread came to life. As I reached for a few pecans to toss into the batter, I accidentally grabbed the chocolate chips instead. Oops?

Swirled with cinnamon sugar, topped with more, and dotted with teeny tiny chocolate chips. It’s almost like cake – soft, tender, and moist. I mean common, look at that deep, dark ripple of cinnamon!

Baking science alert!

Imparting moisture are a few of my very favorite baking ingredients: oil, buttermilk, and brown sugar.

(1) First, the oil. I use oil in my Super-Moist Carrot Cake recipe and knew it was exactly what this quickbread needed. Butter is a fat that gives unbeatable flavor in my recipes, but nothing beats the moisture that oil brings – especially to muffins, cakes, and quick breads. There is so much flavor from the cinnamon, brown sugar, and chocolate chips that the flavor of butter would disappear anyway.

(2) The buttermilk. Don’t try to substitute the buttermilk with anything! Buttermilk is what makes my Triple Chocolate Cake so darn moist. You absolutely need buttermilk for this quick bread recipe. The lactic acid present is what will allow the baking soda to produce the leavening gas (carbon dioxide).

Don’t have buttermilk? Most folks don’t typically keep buttermilk in the house. Save yourself a trip to the store and make your own at home. Measure 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Then, add enough milk (1%, 2%, or whole) to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 cup. Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in your recipe.

(3) Now the brown sugar. You’ll use both granulated sugar and brown sugar to sweeten the bread. Brown sugar is used (almost) exclusively to sweeten the batter, and white sugar is mixed with cinnamon for the swirl and topping. Brown sugar is one of my favorite ingredients – ever. I used light brown sugar in this bread, which is made with less molasses than dark brown sugar. You may use either dark or light in this recipe.

When you have those three imperative ingredients ready, all you have to do is mix your dry ingredients together. Then mix your wet ingredients together. Mix both seperately as much as you want! But when it’s time to combine the wet and the dry – be careful. Be very careful not to overmix. Overmixing your batter will develop the gluten and will result in a heavy, tough textured bread. That’s the last thing you want, trust me! Just mix the wet and dry ingredients together until *just* combined.

You’ll add the batter to the loaf pan with a heavy layer of cinnamon-sugar. Cutting into the bread and finding that cinnamon-swirl tucked inside? Magic. If you couldn’t tell by now, I get really excited over cinnamon sugar swirls.

Before putting into the oven, sprinkle a little more cinnamon-sugar and chocolate chips on top. Ya know, for fun.

Your kitchen is going to smell like a bakery. (You’re welcome.) There is just nothing like the warm, sweet scent of cinnamon bread baking in the oven. Especially on a chilly morning wearing fuzzy slippers and sippin’ chai tea.

There are two things that quick bread shouldn’t be: bland and dry. This bread is neither. If you can wait, this melt-in-your-mouth bread is even more flavorful and moist on day 2. It takes A LOT of willpower, so umm… you definitely don’t have to wait. But similar to how banana bread and carrot cake’s flavor intensifies overnight, this bread is just the same.

You could use this recipe to make muffins, too. I know you love cinnamon-sugar muffins as much as I do. Besides tasting better than a cinnamon bun – yeah, I just said that – it’s an incredibly easy recipe!

Cinnamon-Swirl

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9x5 loaf pan with nonstick spray. I prefer a dark metal loaf pan, which seems to help brown quick breads more evenly.

Make the cinnamon-swirl first by combining the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Make the bread: In a large bowl, toss the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until combined. Make sure there are no brown sugar lumps remaining. Whisk in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk until there are no more lumps. Try very hard not to overmix, which will result in a tough textured bread.

Pour half of the batter into prepared loaf pan. Top evenly with 3/4 of your cinnamon-sugar mixture. Pour the remaining batter on top and finish with the rest of the cinnamon-sugar. Sprinkle with a couple more mini chocolate chips if desired.

Bake the bread, covered loosely with aluminum foil, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Poke the center of the bread with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. Oven times will vary between ovens. My bread took 56 minutes exactly. Allow bread to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting.

Bread stays fresh covered tightly at room temperature for up to 6 days. Bread's flavor and moisture are intensified on day 2. Bread freezes well, up to 2 months.

Additional Notes:

*Room temperature egg is highly suggested for this bread. It will disburse more evenly when mixed. To bring the egg to room temperature quickly, drop into a cup of warm water for 5 minutes.

SO. DELICIOUS. I made this recipe in muffin form this morning, and it’s delightful. Those chocolate chips were the best “mistake” ever made! I have a question about bringing milk to room temperature. I made these at 7:00 a.m. and didn’t want to wait for the milk to warm, so I put it in the microwave at 10 second intervals. Do you have another “trick” to do this? Thank you, and Merry Christmas!

Hi Sally! I truly love your recipes! They are so easy to follow and always make me look so good I hear you on the buttermilk! Since I love to use it but usually don’t keep milk or buttermilk on hand, I’m wondering what you think of powdered buttermilk – I always have that in the fridge! It has the acid in it and in the past has worked great for breads and pancakes and the like. Am I getting into substitution territory or do you think it will work out? Thank you so much for another great one!

LOVED LOVED LOVED this. You want to hear something stupid though, I decided to make two of your “bread” recipes at the same time. What a way to almost mess up both recipes. Plus I have a teeny kitchen. So you can just imagine. Anyway, I used dark brown sugar, instead of the light… I think it made the finished product a little darker than your pictures. Is that possible.

Also I had a lot of extra cinnamon sugar. I guess I didn’t have to use it all ?

Yes, it is possible the dark brown sugar will make the loaf a little darker. I instruct to use all of the cinnamon sugar mixture both layered in and sprinkled on top. It’s ok you didn’t use it all though– as long ad you love the taste!

Hey Sally!
I love your recipes and I’m planning on making this one today. One thing that I do not have is buttermilk. I usually use a substitute and it works fine, but I got a little nervous when you wrote “no substitutions”. Any thoughts?

Hey Diane! Buttermilk is so important. However, you can try a DIY buttermilk substitute: Measure 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice in a measuring cup. Then, add enough milk (1%, 2%, or whole) to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 cup. Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in your recipe.

Sally, I tried the Cinnamon Swirl Chocolate Chip Bread. Tastewise it turned out awesome. But it was very crumbly on the top. While slicing it was breaking up at least an inch down . After that it sliced well. Hence it was not very appealing to the eyes while serving. any idea what wet wrong?

Dear Sally, I tried making this bread this morning but ended up with burnt top and bottom but the bread is SO moist. I’m still figuring out what went wrong with the burnt sides. FYI, I’m using electric oven of which you can choose to use top or bottom or both flames and I used both flames for this bread. Should I have used just the top one instead? I used the aluminum foil at first but more than halfway when I checked the bread, the melted sugar on top kind of sticking to the foil so I removed it. Appreciate your feedback ‘coz I loveeee your recipes. Thanks

I always come here when I want to try a new recipe, and after finding this cinnamon bread recipe last night, I had to make it today. I loved how easy this is to make, and it’s delicious. I’d definitely make it again. Although my bread took much longer to bake. After about 55 minutes, it was practically raw in the middle. I’m not sure why that is, but all in all this is a really delicious and easy quick bread.

I have a jumbo muffin pan that I want to use to make this as muffins. What would a good bake time to start with be? I have three kiddos so I’m bad about forgetting my baked items. I would make it as bread, and I’m sure I will for a weekend, but my oldest son who’s 6 wants muffins before breakfast.